John Stearne's Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft: Text, Context and Afterlife

ISBN-13: 9780367511814 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 214 str.

Opis

This book is the first study which analyses John Stearne’s publication A confirmation and discovery of witchcraft. It contextualises his ideas within early modern intellectual cultures of religion, demonology, gender, science, and print in order to better understand the witch-finder’s beliefs and motives. 

Spis treści

Introduction  1. The background of the East Anglian witch-hunt: the economy, courts, religion and the beginnings of the trials  2. Puritanism: a comparison of Stearne’s religious beliefs to the orthodoxy of the Westminster Assembly’s Confession of faith  3. Print culture: the literature of the supernatural and the reception of A confirmation  4. Familiar spirits: the origins of Stearne’s concept of familiars and its symbolisms  5. Witchcraft, sex and gender: witchcraft confessions in A confirmation as a reflection of seventeenth-century gender roles  6. Science and the decline of witchcraft beliefs: evidence for the scientific basis of Stearne’s witch-finding  7. The afterlife of A confirmation: the circulation and rediscovery of Stearne’s text in the nineteenth century  Conclusion

O autorze

Scott Eaton teaches history at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a religious and cultural historian, with a particular interest in early modern witchcraft, magic, art, and print cultures.